The effects of hydrothermal conditions on the sorption and fixation of cesium by various clay minerals and shales were investigated. Hydrothermal heating, which may be expected in a radioactive waste repository, altered the clay minerals and shales and led to a decrease in their cation-exchange capacity. Cesium sorption greatly decreased in micaceous vermiculite and in well-crystallized illites containing vermiculite upon hydrothermal treatment at 400°C and 300 bars pressure due to complete layer collapse. However, poorly crystallized illites heated as above showed either a small increase or only a slight decrease in Cs sorption because of partial layer collapse. These studies show that the decrease in Cs sorption is greater in well-crysallized illites than in poorly crystallized illites when treated similarly under hydrothermal conditions. Hydrothermal heating of Cs-sorbed and Cs-saturated samples increased the amount of Cs fixation in all minerals and shales as a result of collapse of the layers. For example, a sample of the Conasauga shale fixed only 18% of sorbed Cs before treatment but fixed 47% after hydrothermal treatment at 200°C and 300 bars pressure. Thus, hydrothermal conditions in a shale repository may be beneficial after leaked radioactive Cs ions are taken up by clay minerals in shales.

The adsorption of 1,10-phenanthroline (OP) onto some clays and oxides was studied as a function of concentration, pH, and time. The adsorption was found to be irreversible and the isotherms, except for silica gel, were hyperbolic and gave rise to plots similar to that of Langmuir. Kinetic and light scattering studies show that OP is adsorbed as a micellar unit composed on the average of 3.5 molecules/micelle. This fact explains the overestimation observed in the surface areas of some sorbents since no true monomolecular layer of OP is formed on the surfaces. The adsorption was also found to be pH dependent, attaining a maximum, independent of the sorbent, at about pH 6. This maximum was approximately at the same pH in which only the molecular form of OP began to be present. The partial desorption of OP as the pH increased beyond 6 is possibly associated with the aggregation of micelles on the surfaces.